The negative effects of plastic pollution are even more widespread than we think, with new study discover that nano- and microplastics represent a serious risk to biodiversity, agricultural production and global food security.

What is happening?

The study, carried out by a team of international researchers, examined the extent to which plastics affect the health and behavior of beesother pollinatorsand insects – and came to a worrying conclusion.

According to the findings of the study, if bees and other insects ingest plastic particles from food or air, this can damage their internal organs, weaken their immune systems and even change their behavior, impacting their ability to provide essential services to local ecosystems and agriculture, such as pollination and pest control.

“We find microplastics in the bee gut and see how wild bees use plastic to build their nests,” said Alexandra-Maria Klein, co-author of the study and professor of nature conservation and landscape ecology at the University of Fribourg. “We therefore need to urgently study what interaction this has with other stressors, such as climate changefor bees and their pollination services.”

Why is the ingestion of microplastics by pollinators a concern?

Bees and other beneficial insects are necessary to maintain the balance of delicate ecosystems. Flowering plants provide food and shelter for pollinators, which help plants grow and reproduce by fertilizing them through cross-pollination.

Without pollinators, fruit and vegetable crops are threatened, particularly due to microplastics accumulate more and more in the soil and water of plastic landscape, rubber mulchfertilizers, wastewater and atmospheric deposition which disperse them over large areas. As the amount of microplastics in ecosystems continues to increase, so does the potential harm to pollinators, putting the global food supply at risk.

To put into perspective how disastrous a world without agriculture or agriculture would be, crops represent 80% of food consumed by humans and are also necessary to feed livestock, another crucial part of global food systems for the meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather and wool they provide. Without forgetting that plants represent 98% of the oxygen we breathe, another essential element of human survival that would be impacted by a reduction or loss of the planet’s pollinators.

What are we doing about plastic pollution?

Big Ag is the main contributor to plastic pollution accumulating in the ground. 12.5 million tonnes of plastic products each year. To reduce the amount of microplastics in pollinator habitats, we must address the amount of plastic used by humans, particularly by large food companies.

Experts believe this can be done through the intentional use and reduction of plastic products as well as the collection, reuse and recycling of plastics to reduce the amount of plastic particles entering soil and water.

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Sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives are even better solutions. An example is one biodegradable landscape sheet which is being developed by a team of biomolecular engineers with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Engineers are trying to create a landscape sheet made of biopolymers that decompose naturally in the soil. Researchers are even studying how to make the landscape leaf nitrogen efficient, meaning that as it decomposes, it would deposit essential nutrients into the soil to help crops grow.

Although solutions are being developed, microplastic researchers and other environmentalists hope that governments around the world will soon recognize the dangers that microplastics pose to pollinators and the global food supply and implement policies aimed at limit the use of plastic by large agricultural companies and others. superpolluters.

“But it is already clear today that there is an urgent need for political control of plastic pollution,” says Klein. said.

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